I .T I T I I I E I Y
VOLUME 6
NUMBER 1
FEBRUARY
1998
The Multi-dimensional Dutchman:
An interview with Ron van der Meer
Michael Dawson
Ludlow, England
An elderly aunt of mine, to whom we paid
regular courtesy visits during the war years, used to
look upon my restless antics with a slightly jaundiced
eye and declare that I had far too much Super Fluous
Energy, a malapropism that became something of a
family joke. Time — alas - has drained me of most of this
highly charged viscosity but occasionally the phrase
returns as being entirely appropriate to a few others I
have had the pleasure of knowing.
Ron van der Meer
is one such - a
man who seems to
have Super
Fluidity in
abundance!
Lanky, mercurial,
somewhat
abrasive; he has
the charm and
raw
Ron van der Meer
disingenuousness of a perpetual schoolboy . Add to these
traits his much-flaunted Dutch origins and you have a
quick-witted iconoclast who enjoys confronting
problems head-on and solving them with wit and down-
to-earth practicality.
As a virtuoso children's book illustrator,
designer and producer especially associated with a
string of best-selling pop-ups and the internationally
successful fun-learning kits such as The art pack a ,The
maths pack M , and the latest - The brain pack ,s — he is
one of Britain's most talented and versatile book-
packaging entrepreneurs.
When I arrived at his recently acquired home
and studio-complex on the southwestern fringe of
London, the ground was trembling as if by his dynamic
discharge: in fact, the secluded villa on a bosky rural
lane is directly under the Heathrow flight-path and only
a stone's throw from the M4 motorway whose rumble is
omnipresent in the distance. He greeted me with red-
stained fingers: I'd caught him polishing his trade-mark
red shoes! Pictures of this traditional Dutch footwear
appear as his logo on note-paper and business cards; at
book fairs and publishers' gatherings, the sight {and
sound) of pointy red shoes approaching indicate that
Van der Meer is near. I asked whether he is still able to
buy them off the shelf in Holland: apparently he now
has them specially made in batches of three. And I
wondered if they were being given a final buff in honor
of my presence - but no. They were to be worn for a
television session later in the day (an ITV crew were to
film him for a schools' broadcast) and on a business trip
immediately afterwards, first to the Netherlands (where,
with his brother, he is forming a publishing company)
and then on to America to clinch a few more deals. No
wonder he chose headquarters so near the airport.
We settled around the kitchen table with hard-
backed chairs (no executive fripperies here) armed with
strong coffee and cheroots, and I began by asking how
his interest in book design - especially pop-ups — had
begun.
I studied graphic design for four years at the Royal
College of Fine Art in The Hague. That was during the
'60s. It was a very good course but strongly Bauhaus
oriented. You know the sort of thing: your tutor got an
orgasm if you put lettering at an angle against a primary
colour background. We received an excellent training in
basic graphic design and of course it's the sort of thing
you never lose. Highly philosophical! Very rarified! But
in a way I found it increasingly restrictive - I began to
hate it - so when I finished in 1 969 1 was very anxious to
get away.
I wanted to leave Holland and I wanted to get
into a different type of design altogether, one where I
could apply the skills I'd acquired to other disciplines. I
felt it was time to forget about graphic design; I didn't
fancy spending my life devising corporate house-styles or
company logos. When I was accepted by the Royal
College of Art in London it was like entering Valhalla.
Continued on page 2
The Movable Book Society
ISSN: 1097-1270
Movable Stationery is the quarterly publication of The
Movable Book Society. Letters and articles from
members on relevant subjects are welcome. The annual
membership fee for The Society is SI 5.00. For more
information contact Ann Montanaro, The Movable Book
Society, P.O. Box 1 1654, New Brunswick, New Jersey
08906.
Daytime telephone: 732-445-5896
Evening telephone: 732-247-6071
e-mail: montanar@rci.rutgers.edu
Fax:732-846-7928 or 732-445-5888
The deadline for the next issue is Mav 15.
Continued from page 1
The College had an enviable reputation in the
Netherlands; it was the only place offering a three year
master's degree in art anywhere in Europe at the time. In
those days it was really tough to get in - I remember
when I applied there were 300 applications for the ten
places offered. There was three-day interview when you
had to show your work and explain it. I loved the
experience and was eventually accepted to do
Educational Graphics.
What did that entail? Illustrating text-books,
designing wall-charts . . . that sort of thing?
Nothing like that at all. In fact, when I started,
the course hadn't really been invented! What I was
anxious to do was make toys and three-dimensional
teaching-aids. I designed a special educational alphabet
for children at primary school. I re-designed the
international phonetic alphabet. Being a Dutchman - and
a cheeky one at that - they allowed me to work in just
about every bloody department. Jewelry, sculpture, film-
making - it was a marvelously liberating experience. In
Holland we hardly had any chance to get away from the
drawing-board - 1 think we were allowed to do a little bit
of silk-screen printing - but only once. That was the
highlight of our four year course. Whereas in London I
was encouraged to devise my own strategy. It was much
more open. Much more practical. Much wilder.
My main project at the RCA was to invent a
little industrial type of thingy that allowed blind people to
draw . . .
To do what? How on earth did you come by
that idea?
Well it all occurred because of something I
found at a jumble sale. We don't have such things in
Holland, you know. There are flea markets, of course, but
your jumble sales here are cheaper . . . and much more
fun. You have to fight with the old ladies and dive into
the crum to find anything there. At one such scramble I
found a little carton for 6 pence. Inside was a beautifully
made wooden construction which, after experimenting
for a while, I discovered was an old fashioned Braille
typewriter. So what did I do? I sort of played with it. I
sent letters off to my friends in Holland written in Braille
- it took them 10 days to translate!
Then I made up my own Braille alphabet
because I didn't know the real one. From there, one thing
led to another. 1 thought: how do blind people react to the
concept of drawing? So I started planning a simple
device that might help.
Eventually they allowed me to take it to a
special school in North London (The Chorley Wood
School for Girls with little or no sight) where, every
Wednesday evening, I taught blind girls to draw. After
three years I felt that I'd built up enough experience to
prove that blind people could be taught to express
themselves just as well as the sighted. Indeed, one of my
girls who was especially talented went on to do a
foundation course at Goldsmith's College, them
completed a degree in sculpture and was finally accepted
at the Royal College to master in Environmental Studies.
As far as I know, she's the only blind person in the world
who has succeeded in undertaking a proper art education
despite her disability. She was tough egg. Very skilled
and very tough. Sadly, I've now lost touch with her
completely.
/ wondered whether this clever "little thingy"
had been taken up commercially?
No, never. The BBC has had the design in its
"In Touch" catalogue for 10 years and I'm still asked how
to construct it. The gadget is very simple really: Anyone
can use it. I've had 50 of them made . . . maybe 100, so
I usuallyjust send one off to enquirers. At the start, when
I was working at Chorley Wood, the device received
quite a bit of publicity from newspapers and TV but only
the art critic of The Times took it really seriously - wrote
about it as an educational tool
Continued on page 7
Tucson's A-Poppin'!
By Chuck Murphy
Van Nuys, California
Two hundred and eighteen! That's how many
titles were on display at the Tenth Annual Pop-up and
Movable Book Exhibit at the University of Arizona
library in from December 1, 1997 through February
1998. This represented almost all the pop-up and
movable titles released by U.S. publishers for the year.
The curator of the exhibit was Dr. James T.
Sinski. Professor Emeritus of the University of
Arizona. Dr. Sinski has been collecting pop-ups since
he received his first one as a gift in 1974. He
assembled his first exhibit at the University of Arizona
in 1984 and began the annual exhibit series in 1988.
Some highlights of the series include "The Best of 3-D
Books, Antique to Contemporary, 1548-1990" and a
sampler of the work of V. Kubasta. a name well known
to the collecting community.
I was invited by Dr. Sinski to open this year's
exhibit with an informal discussion of the processes of
designing and producing a pop-up book. Simon and
Schuster were sending me on a book tour that included
Tucson and Dr. Sinski graciously offered to drive me
to my various book signing appointments.
The location for the exhibits is a beautiful and
busy working university library. It was interesting to
see these books displayed amid the bustling activity of
college students rushing to prepare for mid-terms and
quite pleasing to see some stop to peruse the world of
pop-up books.
The books on exhibit were divided into three
display areas. The first and largest display consisted of
ten large counter-top style cases. This type of case
allows for the best viewing of the opened pop-up
spreads. Each of the cases carried a title indicating a
category such as: Christmas; The Best of 3-D; Young
Children; Science; Interactive / Books Plus; and two
cases contained miniature books, most of these being
gift books for adults. These displays really showed
what pop-up books are all about as there was great
variety in engineering complexity and illustration
styles. The least interesting as a category was the
sentiment / gift mini-books. Notably absent were any
Disney titles. They did not respond to requests for
exhibit samples, probably couldn't afford the expense.
The second exhibit area was on the third floor of
the library. These cases were glass cubes, also at
counter height, each large enough to hold two
oversized books opened for display. These held the
larger more elaborate titles such as The Architecture
Pack.
The foyer of the Special Collections Annex of the
Library was the location of the third exhibit area. This
display consisted of pop-up books published by Simon
and Schuster and books designed and / or engineered
by myself.
A handsome 60-page catalog of the exhibit was
designed by Robert Hershoff and included black and
white photos of covers or interior art from some of the
titles. Copies of the catalog are available for $10.00
postpaid.
Overall this was a very well organized and
attractive exhibit. Previous shows have drawn upwards
of 50,00 visitors. If you love those pop-ups and want to
see 'em all in one place, and experience the scenic
beauty of Tucson as well, get on down to the Eleventh
Annual Exhibit.
I want to thank Dr. James Sinski for making my
visit so very enjoyable. Thanks also to Alex Britain for
his considerable culinary skills and to Robert Hershoff
for allowing me to view some wonderful books from
the special collections.
The 2nd Conference of The
Movable book Society
APRIL 30 TO MAY 2, 1998
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
ROBERT SABUDA
1 1^- Awful
2 "& - POOR
3tV-OK
4 "& - Good
5 "w" - Superb
ABC Fun. David Pelham. Dutton. 0-525
45827-1. $10.99 US. 16x16cm. 13 spreads.
1 pop, 14 tab mechs. Art: Simple, bright,
computer generated flat colors. Plot: Learning the
ABC's in a very conceptual way. Each spread opens
to show 2 letters and one image. Tab mech. reveals
the relationship from 1 s ' to 2" letter. The Orange
reveals that it has a Peel, the Queen reveals that she
wears a Robe. Very nice. Paper Eng: Simple.
The ancient Egyptian Pack. Concept,
Paper Eng. & 111: Christos Kondeatis,
Written by Sara Maitland. Bulfinch Press.
0-8212-2327-5. S40.00 US, $54.00 Can, 25.00 UK.
27x27cm. 6 spreads. 3 pops (1 removable), 1 (very
complex) mask to construct, 1 game of Senet with
plastic pieces and die, 1 paper coffin and mummy, 1
paper hieroglyphic scroll, 3 paper amulets, one 64-
page, black & white booklet. Art: Realistic photos,
watercolors, and reproductions of antique prints. Plot:
"A three-dimensional celebration of Egyptian
mythology, culture, art, life and the afterlife"
(Whew!). Pop of the Sphinx is cool, lots to read but
playing pieces for Senet look like checkers played
with a die. Caliber not of the Van der Meer series,
but nicely put together. Paper Eng: Complex.
Big silver space shuttle. Text: David
Bennett Books Ltd. Ill: Ken Wilson-Max.
Paper Eng: Uncredited. Cartwheel Books.
0-590-10081-5. $1*4.95 US, $18.99 Can. 29x26cm.
6 spreads. 16 pull tabs. Art: Bright, brushy simple
paintings. Plot: How the space shuttle work. Lots of
hands on activity for very young readers. Love the
paintings, but the "Sturdy Pull Tabs" advertised
aren't so sturdy. Paper Eng: Simple.
Can you do what dog can do? In the
morning. By Jo Lodge. Paper Eng: Un-
credited. Barrons. 0-7641-5069-3. $5.95 US,
$7.50 Can. 16x16cm. 12 pgs. 6 tab mechs. Art: Very
bright, very simple, flat lines and colors. Plot: Primer
for youngsters that shows how to get up, get dressed,
get going, etc. demonstrated by animals. Cute and
basic, for very young readers. Paper Eng: Very
simple. Also: Could you do what rabbit can do? In
the evening, 0-7641-5070-7
The Consumate Cigar Book - A Three-
Dimensional Reference Guide. By Robert
Kemp. Ill: John Rowe. Paper Eng: Rives.
Pop-up Press. 1-888443-22-7. $45.00 US, $63.00
Can. 3 1x26x5cm (constructed like an actual cigar
box). 9 spreads. 8 pops, 7 flaps, 1 paper journal, 1
paper guillotine cutter. Art: Realistic colored pencil
& airbrush. Plot: Everything you want to know about
the current revival of the absolutely revolting (hey,
it's my column, I can say what I want) leisure
activity. Beautifully designed and illustrated. I
shudder at how many will buy it as a gift to give. But
at $45.00 it's expensive for what you get (just like
smoking!) Paper Eng: Somewhat complex.
Edward plants a garden. By Dale Gottlieb.
Paper Eng: Uncredited. Envision. 1-890633-
04-6. S7.95 US. $1 1.25 Can. 16x17cm. 10
pgs. 6 tab mechs. 5 flaps. Art: "Maisy"-like brushy,
bright paintings. Plot: Edward the rabbit (who looks
suspiciously like "Maisy's" brother) shows us how a
garden grows. For very young readers, although I
love the line "Chicken poop helps make the garden
grow." Paper Eng: Very simple. Also: Tulip builds a
birdhouse. 1-890633-05-4.
The great Pyramid. By Roscoe Cooper. Ill:
Carolyn Croll. Paper Eng: Vicki Teague-
Cooper. Bridgewater Books. 0-8167-4390-8.
SI 8.95 US, $26.50 Can. 36x36x36cm (triangular). 5
spreads. 5 pops. 1 tab mech, 8 flaps, 4 book-like
accordions, 9 puzzle pieces, 2 paper necklaces. Art:
realistic watercolor. Plot: Understanding ancient
Egypt, pyramids, gods, pharaohs. etc. Well written
and illustrated, but pops could be a little more
exciting. Paper Eng: Somewhat complex.
Make a joyful noise - A pop-up book of
Christmas carols. Ill: Francesca Crespi.
Musical arrangements: Frances Lincoln Ltd.
Paper Eng: Uncredited. Little Simon. 0-689-81526-3.
S14.95 US. 20x27cm. 5 spreads. 5 multi-piece pops,
1 tab mech, 2 rotating/ dissolving wheels, 1 flap. Art:
Folk-art type watercolors. Plot: 6 holiday songs to
play and/or sing. Very nice art, classy and
understated book. Paper Eng: Somewhat complex.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art -
Masks. Design & Paper Eng: Heather
Simmons & Olivier Charbonnel. DK
Ink. 0-7894-2454-1. SI 9.95 US. 22x3 lcm. 5 spreads.
5 pop-up masks that can be removed and worn. Art:
Color photos. Plot: The history and purpose of masks
in 5 different cultures. Well written and beautifully
designed. Masks are very good. Paper Eng: Complex.
r Play and count in Patche's house. By Jo
' Lodge. Paper Eng: Uncredited. Red Wagon
Books/Harcourt Brace & Co. 0-15-2016651.
SI 1.95 US. 19x29cm (house shaped). 4 section wrap-
around playset. ties open with ribbon. 3 pops, 6 tab
mechs, 4 flaps. Art: Very bright, very simple flat
lines and color. Plot: It's a busy day with Patches (the
dog) and all his friends at his house. Humorous, but
no paper pieces to remove and play with in the house.
For very young readers. Paper Eng: Very simple.
There's a bug in my mug! By Kent
Salisbury. Paper Eng: Dave Werner.
McClanahan. 1-56293-931-9. S6.99 US,
$9.99 Can. 19x24cm. 6 spreads. 6 identical push tabs.
Art: Humorous, computer generated. Plot: Push the
tab and the image and word change. "Wig" becomes
"Pig," etc. Fun concept with surprisingly good art
from the computer. Paper Eng: Simple. Aiso: My
nose is a hose! 1-56293-930-0.
The Conservation Center
Ann Montanaro
East Brunswick, NJ
A reoccurring question posed by collectors is
"Where can I get books repaired?" The Conservation
Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia is
one place where that work is done. I recently had the
opportunity to visit the Center and was graciously greeted
by the Co-Director Glen Ruzicka who showed me their
facilities and some current restoration and repair
projects. Ten professionals and four technicians are
employed by the Center and they combine technical
expertise and respect for the artistic and historic integrity
of all of the objects being treated.
Treatment services are available for any work of
art or historic artifact on paper. During my visit I saw a
variety of items undergoing repair and restoration: an
album of family photographs being restored following
water damage; a huge Rauschenberg print on tar paper
undergoing conservation to save it from self destruction;
and a small, vibrant portrait constructed of tiny tooth-
pick-size, colored sticks being restored with rolled paper
pieces replacing missing sticks. In addition there was a
13th Century Bible which had split wood covers which
were being repaired and an historic Regency print which
was being removed from the glass originally intended to
protect it. I was also shown several Beatrix Potter books
being repaired for the Free Library of Philadelphia
including the pop-up The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, part
of Lite Mrs. Strang's Playbooks series.
The repair and restoration work done by the
Center is superb. The first step of their work is to
evaluate items needing repair and to make written
recommendations about options for treatment. The
charge for the evaluation is $75 per hour for one item or
group of items. They produce slides before and after
treatment is done and their aim is to make all of their
work reversible. The work is professional and thorough
but not inexpensive. I took a book for review which was
in quite good condition but was lacking the spine cover.
The spine cover had come off and I had it in two pieces.
Their recommended treatment for that particular book
included cleaning both covers, strengthening the text
block, and fixing the spine at an estimated cost of
between $300 and $500. The Center also prepares
clamshell storage boxes for individual items at a cost of
between $175 and $200. Four-flap covers are also
available, designed and produced for specific, individual
books.
Any book sent to the Center for consideration
must be insured and sent by Federal Express. The Center
has Fine Art insurance for the item while it is on their
premises and the owner is required to pay for the
insurance. The Center's clients range from individual
collectors sending one book to the Library of Congress.
For more information contact the Center at 264 South
23rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103 or call 215-545-
0613.
If books in your collection need repair, that
work should be done professionally to ensure that it is
done correctly and that the repair will not eventually
further damage the book. If repair is not immediately
available or if safe storage is needed, an alternative is
acid-free, archival storage boxes. Three companies
supply boxes and information about conservation and
preservation. The catalog "Archival Quality Materials for
Conservation, Restoration, and Preservation," is
available from University Products, 517 Main St., P.O.
101, Holyoke, MA 01041-0101. Light Impressions calls
itself "The leading resource for archival supplies." The
address for their catalog is 439 Monroe Ave., P.O. Box
940, Rochester, NY 14603-0940. Gaylord Bros., a library
supplier, has a catalog "Gaylord Archival: Storage
materials and conservation supplies." It is available at
P.O. Box 4901, Syracuse, New York 13221-4901.
Auction Results
Ann Montanaro
East Brunswick, NJ
The Swann Galleries auction held in New York on
January 8, 1998, included a large number of movables,
transformations, and pop-ups which were sold for quite
high prices. Books were auctioned individually and in
lots of up to 40 books. The on-site participation was
smaJl with no more than 50 people in the audience, but
many bidders had submitted offers in advance and others
participated over the telephone. These are representative
prices realized from some of the individual items sold at
the auction:
Questions
Q. I have tried to purchase Choo-Choo Charlie listed in
the December issue of Movable Stationery but have been
unable to find a copy. Could you help me locate this title?
Kay Wise
Ravenna. Ohio
A. Choo-Choo Charlie is available for $24.95 but it may
be difficult to find as it is a playset and may not be
carried by all bookstores. It has a story and pop-up
village. Both Borders and Barnes & Noble carry the title
as does Amazon.com.
Always jolly! Meggendorfer. [1890]. $1,200.
Clown putty face. Meggendorfer. [1895]. Minimum price
not met.
Comic actors. Meggendorfer. [1900]. SI, 700.
Dean 's new book of dissolving scenes [1862]. $950.
Hopalong Cassidy and Lucky at the Double X Ranch.
[1950], $80.
Lebende bilder. Meggendorfer. [1878]. $950.
Magic pictures: A book of changing scenes. Nister.
[1890], $425.
Pantomime Pictures Nister. [1895]. $700.
The pop-up Minnie Mouse and The Pop-up Mickey
Mouse. [1933]. $750.
Touch andgo. Nister. [1890]. $375.
Travels of little Lord Thumb and his man Damian.
Meggendorfer. [1892|. $1,900. Shown Below
Q. In Tony Sarg's book Treasure Island, a pirate on an
island is looking for the treasure. There is a long,
shallow pocket. What did it hold?
Ellen Rubin
Scarsdale, New York
A. I had the Tony Sarg book as a child. I recently found
it again, but it also does not have anything in the shallow
pocket on the pirate page. I recall it being a small bag -
muslin, I think, tied with a string. Inside were a few gold
play coins.
Betty Tisinger
Moneta, Virginia
Q. Theodore Brown's Magic Pictures was reviewed in
the December issue. Is it available in the US?
Sue Rothwell
Salt Lake City, Utah
A. George Hall is distributing this book in the US. The
price is $58 including postage. Make checks payable to
George Hall. P.O. Box 64246, Tucson, Arizona 85728.
1998 Book Arts Jamboree
The Book Arts Jamboree is five days of
instruction in making pop-ups, boxes, tunnel books,
wearable books, and paper engineering. Held at the
Cedar Terrace Resort in the Catskill Mountains of New
York, the jamboree will feature instruction by Carolyn
Cadwick, Ed Hutchins, Robert Sabuda, and Miriam
Schaer. The dates are June 7-12, 1998 and the cost is
$550. For more information telephone 518-622-01 13 or
send email to queerbooksr?aol.com
Continued from page 2
rather than the basis for a sentimental story. Later I
contacted 150 blind schools throughout Britain, trying to
interest staff in the possibilities of its use for teaching maths
and geography as well as art itself - but I received no
response.
So, a slightly disappointed conclusion to your
endeavours whilst at the Royal College. What next?
Well at first I wanted to return to Holland but I
hadn't any useful contacts there in my specialization. No
one at the RCA could help me either. So I had to go outside
- to London University, to educational manufacturers - to
ask for advice and help. And to get criticism of the work 1
had been doing. At the same time, I started getting part-time
jobs at places like Goldsmith's and St. Martin's art schools
teaching graphic design, typography, illustration,
photography, animation . . . you name it I taught it! But I
always preferred the opportunities for working in three
dimensions. Then I was approached by someone who was
a senior lecturer at London University who was a specialist
in severely handicapped children. He told me that he and a
colleague were planning a new reading scheme for primary
education and asked whether I would like to join. At that
stage there was no money; no publisher; no certainty of
commercial application. I said: "Terrific! When do I
begin?"
I worked on the project for six months and then
we found a publisher (the Educational Supply Association
in Harlow) and getting the whole thing into production kept
me busy for the next two years. It was a complete reading
system packed into an enormous box for which I did all the
illustrations and devised the various flash cards, display
sheets, pockets and envelopes that were needed. It was a
forerunner of several similar teaching aids that came out in
the early 70s. It sold quite well, I remember, and may still
be in print for all I know.
That led on to a number of commissions designing
toys and board games. For instance, I devised a traffic game
in co-operation with the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents; I did some jigsaw puzzles for the Toy Trumpet
Company and the MacMillan's (Educational) asked me to
design board games to help in the teaching of mathematics.
At about that time - the mid-70s - I also illustrated a
number of reading primers for the same firm, eight titles in
the Fred. Maggs and Creep ' series.
Then, in 1978, 1 saw my first pop-ups. As a matter
of feet a friend lent them to me but he never got them back!
I feel a bit bad about it, really, but they came as such a
revelation. They were those tall thin ones produced by
Graphics International and published in America by
Random House: The titles were The many mice of Mr.
Brice (by Theo LeSieg, 1973) and The action fun book of
opposites. I had never seen anything like them before. I
hadn't come across the Bookano annuals (Published in the
UK between 1932-52 which feature "stand-up models")
nor Kubasta's Czechoslovakian pop-ups (distributed by
Bancroft in London and widely available throughout
Europe and America during the '60s and 70s). This was
my first encounter with paper engineering and I thought it
was amazing. I knew at once it was what I wanted to do.
/ asked how he had gone about reinventing
himself as a maker of pop-ups?
Well, it took a fair time to prepare. I had the idea
for a book about two little children who take a balloon trip
to an exotic island inhabited by weird (but mostly friendly)
creatures. They have some unusual encounters before flying
safely off again. The publishers. Hamish Hamilton, liked
my outline but had no means of producing a three-
dimensional book themselves. So they brought in
Intervisual Communications, the California-based
packager, to help with design and engineering. That's Wally
Hunt's company, of course: He's the man who has
completely revitalized pop-ups over the last three decades.
He liked the concept and agreed to take it on.
Of course. I had my own ideas about how things
could work, but two far more experienced paper engineers,
John Strejan and Tor Lokvig, were assigned to the project
by Intervisual to help knock my preliminary
treatment into
shape. From
then on we
worked closely
together; I
started playing
with effects but
not knowing
enough about it
came up with
too many
complexities:
cutting some
parts so finely
that they could
snag in
production;
including
unnecessary
gluing points
that would merely add to the costs. Obviously you can only
learn about such things from experience.
I had enormous fun with it and gained a lot. Really
all I was interested in was using a whole variety of colourful
monsters; land monsters, sea monsters, flying monsters, as
an excuse for establishing myself in a medium that - for me
- was quite new. I'm glad to say that the book - inevitably
called Monster Island 2 - proved a great success all over
the world: one of Wally's all-time gTeats. It has been
translated into French, German, Spanish . . . even Japanese.
And, do you know, ifs still in print?
Sometimes it is difficult to follow-up an initial
best-seller of this sort, since people just expect more of the
same. In fact Van der Meer went on quire a different tack.
With the team from Intervisual he produced The pop-up
games book 3 , which provided young players with four
rather peculiar dimensional challenges of skill (mostly
variations on tiddlwvinks!) Within the covers of a book. A
similar compendium. Magic tricks pop-up book 4 , which he
devised, designed, illustrated, wrote and engineered
himself was an attempt to incorporate a range of simple
illusions for the junior magician into the same fold-away
format. Neither of them hit the jackpot in quite the same
way as Monster Island but provided their originator with
sufficient confidence to go independent - to become not
only a designer/engineer but a packager as well. I asked
how this came about.
I'd been talking with Raymond Briggs about
adapting his Fungus the Bogeyman as a pop-up. It had first
appeared in 1977 as sort of a weird comic book about a
family of troglodytes, published by Hamish Hamilton. This
original version contained lots of handwritten text and
cartoon pictures which had to be adapted and simplified to
fit the new format. Raymond initially suggested quite a
different storyline: he wanted me to do a sort of
Shakespearian restaurant that was run by his troll. So we sat
opposite each other for about three weeks, fiddling and
playing with the idea. I took his drawings and cut them up.
trying to make something that would work in three
dimensions and as a movable. We just made it up as we
went along. When we were both happy with the new
version of our little green monster, we took a mock-up to
Hamish Hamilton expecting Wally Hunt at Intervisual to
snap up the rights. In fact he didn't want to know about it.
And no one else - none of the other packagers - liked the
idea of our smelly sewer-dweller who picked his nose and
pulled his filthy trousers down to go to the lavatory! But
Hamish Hamilton still wanted to publishe and asked "Can
you produce it yourself?" I replied that I'd never done it
before, but I thought I could tackle it. So that's how Van der
Meer Designs became Van der Meer Productions.
The book appeared as Fungus the Bogeyman
plop-up book 5 in 1982 and was a runaway success. I
remember that when it first came out we put piles in little
dump-bins and then invited the sales reps from the big
distributors like W.H. Smiths and Book Club Associates to
come and meet us. As soon as buyers came in they spotted
the distinctive cover and were immediately intrigued.
You know how irresistible the book is? I'd say "Pull the tab
and see the Bogeyman pissing his pants!" There had never
been anything like it before ... the orders rolled in. Of
course little boys especially enjoyed it. It was the first
contemporary pop-up that had been commissioned by a
publisher.
During all this time he continued teaching at art
schools on a part-time basis: not only at Goldsmith's and
St. Martin's but at Middlesex Polytechnic, Coventry and
elsewhere. In 1975 he was invited to return to the Royal
College as a tutor in the Graphics Information
Department, a position he continued to hold until four
years ago. I asked him what this entailed?
Basically it was teaching students how to find the
correct approach to design problems. Normally, a graphic
artist tends to undertake a job with the idea of imposing his
(or her) own aesthetic criteria on it, making a distinctive,
personal impression. Certainly that's how I was trained:
everything had to conform to my ideas. The reason I was
asked to teach at the RCA was because I now believe that
every design problem should generate its own unique
response. Style should be subservient to practicalities not
the other way round. That's the difference between me and
some other paper engineers - I don't design pop-ups just to
make pretty things. We use pop-up techniques only when
we think we can explain things better, making concepts
more explicit. . . perhaps even tell funnier jokes . . .by
working dimensionally. All of this applies particularly to
the series of educational packs I've produced in recent years
- each of them poses particular design problems that
demand to be resolved individually. Much of my work at
the RCA was along similar lines: asking students to find
solutions that answer specific needs.
At one point I was offered the chance to set up a
paper engineering course at the Royal College but I said:
"No." For one thing, there wouldn't be enough work for
graduates. And for another, I didn't want to create too much
competition! I sometimes think that paper engineers are
born rather than trained. There are only about 10 or 12
good ones in the world - people who still possess the ability
to surprise. In my view, the best of them all - 1 mean of the
older ones - are lb Pennick and John Strejan. They are both
getting on now, of course, probably between 65 and 70, but
the really amazing thing about them both is that they are
still like little boys. If they show you something new that
they have done, they bubble over with excitement. They
haven't become cynical or disillusioned with the business.
Especially John ... in terms of pure paper engineering, he's
still the very best. I could ring him any time to say "John,
I've got a problem, how can I fold this and make it work?"
and he'll sit there, smoking (a typical Californian with
chains hanging all over and jeans tight enough to make your
eyes water) and he'll fold and snip with a little pair of
scissors, working very fast, until he's teased out the perfect
answer. "Silver Blades" he calls himself- silver hair and
his nail scissors. I just call him The Maestro!
Once established as an up-and-coming
production house, the Van der Meer machine went into
gear with a string of notable international successes:
Sailing ships 6 , Majesty in flight 7 , The working camera 8 ,
Snow man pop-up 9 (another collaboration with Raymond
Briggs), Great movies live 10 , Phantom of the opera ' ', Hugh
Johnson's pop-up wine book 1: and many more novelties,
gift books, primers, adaptations, promotional items and
greeting cards. Increasingly he drew in other talented
illustrators such as Babette Cole, Lesley Anne Ivory, and
Fran Thatcher to supply the graphics, enabling him to
concentrate more on designing the mechanics and steering
the books through production - a gradual shift from the
creative to the administrative side that he obviously
relishes with only minor regrets.
Unlike many other paper engineers, I've got to
think both as an editor and a designer - look at books as a
whole. What happens on the first page, the second and so
on, ensuring there's a good flow through them all. Are we
suing too many gluing-points at the beginning? How can we
spread the effects out to produce a satisfying whole? At the
same time, I am thinking: "What production problems are
we going to run up against? What market are we aiming at?
How much can we sell this for?" All these considerations
make my work different from that of a straightforward
engineer. In the past I've been approached by many
publishers who say "We've got a terrific idea . . . can you
make it into a pop-up?" And I always say "No" because
that would take the fun out of it. Now I'm on my own and I
want control of everything. Indeed, I'm presently setting up
as a publisher too. so that in future I will be in charge right
from the drawing board to the bookshop display racks.
As Van der Meer Publishing Ltd emerges as a
full-fledged publisher, the trend seems set towards adult
titles such as The brain pack (which appeared in America
last fall) aw/ The architecture pack which (on the evidence
of the dummies that were being worked on when I was
there) is likely to be a superb addition to the lengthening
series when it appears in America and possible in the UK
later this year.
Yes, it's true. We are deliberately moving more
into the adult market though we still plan to continue doing
five or six for children each year. It's a natural development
for us. There's so much competition now in the field of pop-
ups for youngsters and I'm not really interested in fighting
for the middle ground. So I've come back to the educational
side, which after all is where I began. Maybe it's something
to do with my Calvinist upbringing . . . "Thou shall not have
fun unless ifs got a serious purpose" ... or something like
that. The first of the learning kits was The art pack and
setting that up proved an enormous gamble. Almost
everyone predicted a flop. But I managed to prove to the
doubters that a market exists for seriously-intentioned pop-
ups - and that it was a big one, even when you have to
charge £20 a time and more. You call them adult books but
we're aiming at bright 15-year-olds - enquiring minds,
those who are looking for a new slant on subjects that
sometimes appear boring. The books are packed with
models, diagrams, moving parts, pull-out accessories and
even cassettes where appropriate: we try to engage all the
senses in a way that just isn't possible from a CD-ROM, for
instance. The books exist in real space and time. You can
feel things, touch them, experiment. We've done research
that suggests that if you read and experience one of our
Packs, up to 70% of the information is retained. Yet
apparently it is difficult to remember more than 20% of the
facts in an ordinary textbook.
The Packs sell an average of 200.000 copies
worldwide - some do a lot better. The maths pack has sold
over 300.000 and did especially well in America. All of
them go phenomenally well over there, whereas on this side
of the Atlantic they are a disappointment. Maybe it's the
cost. Or perhaps the poor publicity. The art pack didn't get
a single review in the UK. No one takes pop-ups seriously
here!
Despite these local difficulties, Ron van der Meer,
illustrator, designer, paper engineer, packager - and now
publisher - seems poised for global lift-off. The next
prestigious project, he told me, was to be a series of three
dimensional national guides starting with one about
Holland (despite the apparent dichotomy, where else?).
High-level sponsorship for this is in the offing and should
he again bring his magic touch to the venture - as seems
eminently likely - then the world should truly become his
oyster. I finished by asking whether he ever felt the need to
test-market any of these ideas? Never, he replied. I always
instinctively know if something will work.
Of course, 1 realised (as I made May for the TV
crew who were already setting up their camera to film him)
Ron van der Meer has exactly those qualities of the
typically bright, mischievous, hyperactive 1 5-year-old that
he creates his work for. For one with the Super Fluous
energy. He is his own control! Someone who has
succeeded in designed a life that exactly matches his needs
- and offers limitless further opportunities for exploration.
Books illustrated, designed, engineered, and/or
packaged by Ron van der Meer mentioned in the text.
1 . Fred, Maggs and Creep series of 8 titles,
MacMillan (Educational), London, 1976.
2. Monster Island, Hamish Hamilton. London,
[also Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, USA] 1981.
3. The world's first pop-up games book,
Heinemann, London, [also Delacourt, USA] 1982.
4. The pop-up book of magic tricks, Heinemann,
London, [also Viking, USA] 1983.
5. Fungus the Bogeyman plop-up book. Hamish
Hamilton, London, 1982.
6. Sailing ships. Penguin Books. London, [also
Viking, USA] 1984.
7. Majesty inflight, The Abbeville Press, USA,
1984.
15. The brain pack, Running Press, USA, 1996.
16. The architecture pack, Knopf, USA, 1997.
This article originally appeared in Children 's Literature in Education,
vol. 28, # 1 , 1 997 and it is reprinted with permission from the publisher.
ui
8. The working camera. Angus and Robertson,
UK, [also Harmony. USA] 1986.
Catalogs Received
Catalog 56. Aleph-Bet Books. 218 Waters Edge, Valley
Cottage, NY 10989. Phone: 914-268-7410. Fax: 914-
268-5942. Email: alephbet@ix.netcom.com.
Selective Catalogue - New Year 1998. Ampersand
Books. Ludford Mill. Ludlow, Shropshire Sy8 1PP UK.
Phone: 01584 877813. Fax: 01584 877519. Email:
ampersand. books (2imcmail.com.
Catalogue Number 4. Thomas and Mary Jo Barron. 120
Lismore Ave.. Glenside, PA 19038. Phone: 215-572-
6293.
Catalogue 23. A. Dalrymple. 1791 Graefield,
Birmingham, MI 48009. Phone: 810-649-2149.
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night. Catalog
17. Books of the Ages. Gary J. Overmann. Maple Ridge
Manor. 4764 Silverwood Dr., Batavia, Ohio 45103.
Phone:513-732-3456.
Jo Ann Reisler. Ltd. Catalogues 40, 4 1 , and 42. 360
Glyndon St., NE, Vienna VA. Phone:703-938-2967. Fax:
703-938-9057. Email: Reisler@clark.net.
9. The snowman pop-up, Hamish Hamilton.
London, 1986.
10. Great movies live! Ebury Press. London, [also
Simon & Schuster, USA] 1987.
11. The phantom of the opera, Aurum Press, UK,
[also Harper & Row, USA] 1988.
12. Hugh Johnson ;s pop-up wine book. Octopus
Books, UK, [also Harper & Row. USA] 1989.
13. The art pack, Ebury Press, UK. [also Knopf.
USA] 1992.
14. The maths pack. Jonathan Cape. London,
[also: The math kit, Scribners, USA] 1994.
New Publications
The following titles have been identified from pre-
publication publicity, publisher's catalogs, or adver-
tising. All titles include pop-ups unless otherwise
identified. Titles reviewed in Robert Sabuda's "Movable
Reviews" column are not included in this list.
Curious critters: A pop-up menagerie. David Carter.
Little Simon. May. 9" x 9". 5 spreads. S16.95. 0-689-
81586-7.
Lest we forget: A three-dimensional interactive book
with photographs and documents from the Black
Holocaust Museum. Crown Publishing. 10" x 10". 32
pages. S29.95. 0-609-60030-3.
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